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Tour attracts variety of people
Herald Staff Writer
The outing was sponsored by the Mountain Studies Institute and led by David Borrok, a professor in the geological sciences department at the University of Texas at El Paso and Richard Wanty, Rob Runkel and Andy Manning with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver.
Four graduate students, a post-doctoral student and the coordinator of environmental sciences at UTEP accompanied Borrok to complement book learning with field work.
A number of participants had other reasons for learning how minerals leach naturally and as a result of 100 years of mining in the region:
•Manning's wife, Cheryl, who teaches earth and environmental science at Evergreen High School in the Denver foothills town of the same name, was looking for information on which to build a class.
"I hope to learn details of how all this works," Manning said. "I want to understand the interaction between mining and water."
•Suzy Noldan, a retired RVer who has a background in geology, wanted to learn more about what she sees in Ouray, where she spends summers.
"We see all kinds of mine drainage around Red Mountain," Noldan said. "I'm interested in learning about remediation possibilities."
•Bill Coughlin, owner of Western Stream Works in Ridgway, was looking for information to apply in his mine reclamation and hydrology business.
Coughlin has a proposal before the city of Durango for bank stabilization and fish habitat improvement on the Animas River between the Ninth Street bridge and U.S. Highway 160 west. The proposal is before the Corps of Engineers for review and permitting.
•Katrina Dahlman and Miriam Gillow-Wiles from the Western Hardrock Watershed Team were visiting the Mountain Studies Institute, one of their 30 partner organizations. The Western Hardrock Watershed Team is a coalition of the Office of Surface Mining and Volunteers in Service to America, the goal of which is to assure the legacy of historic mining communities in the American West by tackling environmental problems affecting them.
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